edit: that was a long post, sorry GAF, just had to get it off my chest
Billy Joel is my favorite artist. He's one of the biggest influences of how I play piano, and I learned from essentially learning his catalog. I started out easy with things like "She's Always a Woman" and "Vienna". But then I learned to play his harder pieces like "Miami 2017" and "New York State of Mind". I think I can play like 20 of his songs from memory alone.
He always talked about how chords were the foundation of his songs, and this became my mantra for essentially any song I learned how to play.
He rocked the piano and taught me how to rock it as well. Taught me how to sing. Got me my first girlfriend because I played one of his songs at an open mic.
I do think that Cold Spring Harbor is his most underappreciated album, however. A very personal album with beautiful songs and poetic lyrics (he mocks this album now for the most part but I still love it). But yeah, my dad grew up in New York and he showed me Billy Joel. My all time favorite.
Top 5 songs:
Miami 2017
New York State of Mind
Tomorrow is Today
Summer Highland Falls
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant